UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has offered hope to the notion that a joint British & Irish bid for the 2030 World Cup could be favourable for the man overseeing the European confederation.
Rather than publicly endorsing a prospective bid for a tournament still 12-years away, Ceferin did publicly criticise the notion that any cross-confederation bid should be tolerated.
With news that Spain, Portugal and Morocco were considering a bid for the competition, it would signal a distinct departure in so far as the countries would be coming from both Europe and Africa.
Speaking this afternoon in Dublin, Ceferin spoke assertively against any such prospect.
"I'm not in favour of cross-confederation bids, to be honest," the Slovenian admitted.
"Someone should say to the politicians it's not up to them to speak about who will be hosts for sports events or not.
"I've seen many politicians saying that they will be candidates for this or that but they need to speak to their member associations. Some of them don't event know about the public statements of the politicians."
Understandably, Ceferin promised to "do whatever I can to have one European bid because that raises the chances of Europe hosting the World Cup extremely."
While the destination of the 2030 World Cup is as yet some way off, these statements from Ceferin come after the UEFA president previously outlined his preference for a British (and now by extension, Irish) bid.
It is understood that the Football Association of England will decide in 2019 whether or not to launch an official bid to host the event. Either way, with Ceferin and UEFA seemingly in favour of the British & Irish bid, these comments bode well for Ireland's chances of partially hosting football's marquee event.
